In the spirit of “little and often” a quick update to say that today I rode one of the new short hire bikes springing up all around London, including right outside our office. And it was ace. I really think this is a good idea. It’s like Streetcar for bikes.
Here is a picture of me on my bike.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this scheme changes the fabric of London.
The past few weeks I’ve been starting my day with the most amazing power smoothies. For the recipe thanks must go to my personal trainer Rich. But I feel compelled to share: people of the Internet this is what you should be having each morning to get things off to the perfect start.
First up, purchase one of these little puppies from Argos.
Then this is what you put in it:
- 250g of Oats
- Banana
- Handfull of Blueberries
- Handful of Brazil Nuts
- Handful of Hazelnuts
- Handful of Pumpkin Seeds
- Spoon of smooth Peanut Butter
- One scoop of Protein Powder
- Tiny bit of Strawberry flavouring
- Ice
- Water
Then you hit the smoothie button and the magic happens. Delicious and nutritious!
So with all this coverage about Volcano Ash, and the grounding of planes you might think it’s all a bit of an overreaction - here is why it isn’t!
“Eigengrau” (a noun, meaning intrinsic light – the colour seen by the eye in perfect darkness), written by Penelope Skinner and directed by Polly Findlay is a zippy fast paced gem of a play that follows two sets of 20-something flat mates and their interactions with each over the course of a couple of months.
Mark is doing well earning £80k a year in marketing. His flatmate and old Uni friend Tim isn’t adjusting quite so well to the bright lights and is unemployed and locked in an inward spiral of depression following the death of his nan. Leaving the flat or getting dressed would be a noteworthy achievement in Tim’s current world.
Across town Cassie is trying to use her fervent interest in women’s rights to nurture a career in political speech writing. But, more pressingly, she needs to pay the rent. And her newly [via Gumtree] acquired flatmate Rose seems to have lots of excuses, lots of fanciful notions, but very little money.
Mark meets Rose in a pub and Rose brings Mark back. The play kicks off with the awkward conversation between Mark and Cassie the morning after.
The situations, which are presented with sparkling humour laced dialogue clearly resonate well with the mainly 20 something audience and the the play’s strength lies in using familiar experiences (like the awkward morning conversations with flat mate’s shags) as jump off points for exploring deeper themes, which in turn are also oddly familiar albeit somewhat exaggerated. Maybe it’s just me, but I can see elements of all the characters in people I know in real life.
Ultimately, I see the play as being about loneliness. Each of the characters is lonely (some in a more obvious way than others) and is reacting to the paradoxical loneliness of city life in their own way. In a city you may live on top of people in a shoebox flat, cram into the tube with the masses, share your bed with that nights conquest but still be emotionally cold and lonely with little emotional intimacy. The play draws attention to that. I also think it’s a play about Passion – or rather the search for it. Each of the characters is looking for passion in their lives, be it personal or professional but is missing the mark when trying to find it. People coming to a city to look for that certain “something” isn’t exactly new, but it’s nicely evoked here.
Great performances from the cast: Geoffrey Streatfield could easily pass for a young Hugh Grant in terms of mannerisms and Alison O’Donnell particularly impressed. Given the limitations of the venue the staging and lighting were also very good. I think the decision to keep the play moving and not have an interval was also a good one.
A few other reviews have noted that the play doesn’t draw all it’s themes together into a bite size conclusion. But I think that’s missing the point. Whilst the play does offer a conclusion of sorts for characters we’ve been watching for the past 90 minutes, by that point I think it’s got the audience thinking about their own situation and their own points of reference so much that the actual characters in the play become of less interest than the thoughts the play has opened up.
The Bush is a small (intimate!) venue and stage, and the setup for this play has the audience facing each other on opposite sides of the tiny performance area. This serves to enhance the comic moments (“oh yes we can all relate to this!” people seem to say as they chortle) yet make the uncomfortable moments where you are witnessing a characters despair all the more uncomfortable as you catch the glance of the person opposite and share a brief moment of collectively not knowing where to look.
This was my second trip to the Bush Theatre having previously seen the excellent “2nd May 1997″ there a few months ago. If these two plays are indicative of the overall general quality of output from this venue then it seems my hops over to west London are going to become more frequent.
My verdict: 4 stars out of 5
Performance attended: Friday 2nd April @ 7.30pm
When I was a lad you you used to check into hotels. And then only on special occasions. But today dear blog reader you can check into offices and houses, streets, cabs, planes and even, in the case of minor web celebrities, people.
What am I talking about? I’m talking about FourSquare. I’m talking Gowalla. Or maybe I’m alluding to Brightkite. Oh but then sometimes when I’m in a particular mood I do like to give Whrrl an…. erm whirl.
And who can of missed all the endless tweets and status updates (including my very own) that proudly announce that so and so is at such and such.
What on earth does it all mean? And…. what’s the point?
Using these location based services is oddly addictive. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been using FourSquare and every check in you perform gives you points, and sometimes badges. These points and badges aren’t actually worth anything except status on the service, but it’s still fun to get them. Check into a location more times than anyone else and you become Mayor of that place. Which is kind of cool.
When I was at SXSW, everyone seemed to be using the service, and with that level of local usage it was interesting to see where people I knew were and the trending local locations. I noticed that in the US, when you checked into some locations (eg a coffee shop) they would have an offer setup for FourSquare users – I’ve not seen this in the UK yet, but I’d be more inclined to check into a place (particularly somewhere like a Cinema or a Bar) if I thought I might get a real time offer from that place.
Social integration is quite clunky at the moment – I can see who else has recently checked into a place, but if I wanted to contact that person it would be down to using the contact details they have provided on their FourSquare profile: there is no native chat or poke or anything like that included in the service.
I’m quite surprised how willing people are to share their location info. Sure, you have to actively publish a location (so you won’t accidentally publish that job interview you sneaked into during lunch at the rival agency) but sharing your location does have consequences. Will your clients or employer mind you seem to spend an awful lot of time in the pub during the day? Do you really want to publicise when you are in and out of your house (we’ve all seen pleaserobme.com) and do you really want everyone in the world to know your preferred kebab shop at 3am on a Sunday morning? Things to muse on readers.
I’ve also been playing with Google Latitude on my Nexus One. This takes the above to a whole new level and is frankly quite scary. Add a friend to Google Latitude and if they also have a similarly enabled GPS device you can see their real time location overlaid on Google Maps. Wow. Great… right? Hmm I’m not so sure. Great until those little white lies (“Sure, I’m 2 minutes away” ) start to be verifiable via Latitude. Great until one of your friends decides to do something clever with the API and plot how late you are into work most days and then tweet it. As soon as people (ie marketers) work out how to contact you based on your passive location (ie locations you’ve not physically checked into, but have been noted at) the floodgates start to open. Visit a hospital often, will you get “Hey it looks like you are dying! Check out our funeral plans for only $99″ type emails? I guess time will tell.
I’m going to keep playing with these services for the next few weeks then make a decision as to whether to continue . Part of me likes having an audit trail of my movements (Go to sleep? No! Let’s review my last year by movement!) but part of me loves and cherishes anonymity.
And I predict anonymity is going to be the next big thing. Really. More on this soon.
On Wednesday I got back from the USA, where I’d been for just over two weeks, spending most of that time in Austin, TX.
I was there to attend the Music, Film and Interactive portions of South by Southwest (SXSW for short, or – for those really in the know – simply “South by”).
What is SXSW? From Wikipedia:
South by Southwest (SXSW) is a set of interactive, film, and music festivals and conferences that take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States. SXSW first began in 1987 and is centered on the downtown Austin Convention Center. Each of the three parts runs relatively independently, with different start and end dates.
The music event has grown from 700 registrants in 1987 to nearly 12,000 registrants. SXSW Film and SXSW Interactive events attract approximately 11,000 registrants to Austin every March.
I’d heard lots about SXSW from various people over the past few years, and since my interests span Music, Film and Interactive I didn’t need much persuading to go this year.
2 weeks is a long time to be away from the office, but I figured it would be time well spent if it enabled me to learn some new things and get inspired.
SXSW delivered. It was time well spent. I learnt lots of new things, thought about some current things in a different way and it inspired me lots and lots. It reminded me why I set up Acknowledgement in the first place and reinforced how privileged I am to work in one of the most exciting and fastest changing industries in the world. Austin also provided an ideal change of scenery that enabled me to have some thinking time around the future direction of the business and indeed the industry as a whole.
SXSW is big. Too big in fact to cover in one blog post, so I’ll be making several posts over the coming weeks talking about different aspects of the festival, and what I found interesting or memorable. And what I think could be done better. Having lost my SXSW virginity there are also some performance tuning issues from my side I want to hone for SXSW 2011. I’ll be sharing those on this blog too.
I even took some video footage when I was out there, so I’ll edit some of that down and post so you can get a taste of the general setup and atmosphere.
Hold onto your hats blog-o-sphere. I’m back. With lots to say.
Stay tuned for blog posts about the USA, SXSW, Virtualisation, Nexus One vs Iphone, The BA Strike, some of London’s best new theatre shows, some really interesting digital production developments, giving up alcohol, plus the trials, tribulations and sheer joy of running your own business. Oh, and protein shakes.
It all kicks off tomorrow. (book)mark my words.
It’s been a very busy few months, hence the lack of updates. I’ve finally got internet at home again now, so more updates will follow…. honest!
Nice to see one of our recent wins (there are quite a few!) has made the news:
http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/890729/Avis-appoints-Acknowledgement-Web-Liquid-pan-Euro-DM-business/
Really proud of Team Acknowledgement!
The week before last I was lucky enough to attend a read-through of a new film script with my friends Keith and Jen – both of whom are involved in the actual production of the film being read through!
I’m always keen to try new things, and the event was given an added gravitas because a well respected director had not only agreed to direct the film but was also going to be at this read-through.
I rushed there after work: as usual my day was busy and it was hard to get all the things I needed to get done by 7pm done but somehow I managed to make it into a cab and across town to arrive at RADA with minutes to go till the 7.30 start.
Legging it in through their doors just off Gower Street I was furiously replying to people on my Blackberry and checking a voicemail I’d missed, when I suddenly realised I’d entered a whole (great) new world.
I managed to stop myself from announcing to the security guard that I was “from Acknowledgement” just in time and instead didn’t even need to give my name before being simply directed through to a big area at the back of their reception.
In this area no-one was on their Blackberry. Or their Iphone. In fact I didn’t even see an Iphone. I sheepishly put mine away.
No-one was walking around having loud mobile phone conversations. On the walls were pictures of current RADA students and also alumni.
This wasn’t the kind of building reception I was used to! Where were the client logos, marketing press, campaign showreels and yellow pencils?
A bar in the corner momentarily reassured me that I had in fact walked into an ad agency after all. But people seemed to be drinking in moderation: what sort of place was this?!
Before I had too long to contemplate these things, the evening kicked off and I found myself being captivated by the actors young and old who expertly brought the script alive.
The actors were (I later confirmed) doing this for free: to act to an audience is what they love doing: and despite having only spent 3 days with the script they put in a fantastic performance. In the Q and A afterwards I was really impressed by how much they had thought about the character they were playing: what that character’s motivations and desires were, and what, perhaps, had happened to that character in the past to explain their actions in the script.
The actors weren’t dressed in the latest designer gear or sporting fashionable haircuts. In fact I don’t think I spotted a single “credible” label in the whole place. But some of them were certainly young and fit enough to have been ad agency account management fodder and their intensity and dedication to their craft coupled with such confidence in delivery meant they didn’t need any such props to win the audience over.
Throughout the evening various bright young things (current students I assume) tiptoed in and out on their ways to other parts of the building.
Who were these people? Where were they going? How did they get here? I was asking myself all these questions!
So the evening worked for me on two levels. Firstly to hear the script read aloud really brought the story to life and made me understand it on a deeper level. It was a triumph for all involved and a milestone on the road to the film doing great things.
But Secondly the evening also reminded me that despite living here for almost ten years I don’t know London at all.
I know MY London.
But my London works in advertising or media. Hangs out in Soho or Shoreditch. Maybe Farringdon. Drinks at the Ten Bells or The Endurance or Soho/Shoreditch House. Lives in North London. Works 9ish to 6ish. We listen to similar things, wear similar things. We know who Joel Veitch is, of course we are on Twitter and yes Mum and Dad we saw that viral 5 days before it made The Sun. Hell, we might of even made that viral.
And there is nothing wrong with any of that: human behaviour is at it’s total base inherently tribal.
The first time you meet anyone new you immediately try to discover the tribes they belong to: where do they work, where did they study, who do they worship (“no-one” is the biggest tribe of all!), what football team do they support, do they like boys or girls (it’s confusing these days…), what music are they into, what food do they consume, where did they grow up, etc etc
You use the answers to work out where this new person fits on the big venn diagram of your own tribal allegiances.
But this evening reminded me just how many tribes there are and how many I’ve not even touched despite being in London ten years.
There are acting tribes. Political tribes. Student tribes. Parenting tribes. Music tribes. The cool cat 25 year-old advertising guy who likes The Hoxton Pony and MGMT is represented in a parallel universe by a young Tony Blair type who drinks in the Cinnamon Club in Westminster, goes to the Barbican lots and vaguely knows Price Harry. In another parallel universe the 25 year old is an aspiring song writer and performer playing the Hope & Anchor in Islington and living in Camden. Or maybe he’s a junior doctor actually doing something important, like saving lives!
All those people rushing around London, heads down, ipods on: what do they do? Where are they going? Are they students, actors, lawyers, rent boys, unemployed, athletes, on the way to hospital treatment, politicians, medics, on the run? The answer of course is that they are all of the above – and much more besides.
It’s so easy to think your world is the only world: that what matters to the people around you is the only thing that matters to the world at large.
Advertising folk talk of “cut through” all the time: and this night at RADA did just that for me: it reminded me what a great city London is. How great all cities are. How great life is. But how little I actually see of it.
I love London: You can make a million pounds in a week in London. You can find the love of your life in a week. HOW you do it is another question, but it’s possible – it’s all out there.
You can go to some of the best clubs in the world, or see some of the best theatre and music there is. You can eat the best food, or volunteer for charity and also see the worst poverty.
When I first came to London I walked through the streets with sheer wonderment as to the potential this city had in store for me. Ten years later I’d started to kid myself I’d conquered it and have spoken to people about being bored of London.
Bollocks! I realise now I’ve maybe seen 1% of what this city has to offer. The London revival for me starts again right here right now.
London is a city I want to rediscover and find new things in. And that’s what I’m going to do! And you blog reader are coming along for the ride.
More soon!